


Where the River Divides

by RoseintheWind



Series: Iwaoi Week 2020 [8]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Dimensions, Festivals, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, M/M, Split realities, Time Skips, iwaoi week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27965135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseintheWind/pseuds/RoseintheWind
Summary: ~~Iwaoi Week Day 8 - Holidays/Festivals~~It starts with the crack in the sky, a mystery in the air on the 7th day of the 7th month. Tooru is drawn to it, and every time he enters he finds himself attached to the boy that stands at the edge of the bridge from the other side.Every Tanabata, he finds himself racing to through, chasing after a boy he thinks he's supposed to know.No.Heknowshe's supposed to know.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Series: Iwaoi Week 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035180
Kudos: 8





	Where the River Divides

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so something really funny actually just happened. My computer's pretty old and conked out (seems like for good) and now I'm stuck using my parent's for a little while. (Which I'm sure you can see the problem with lmao) I'm planning on getting a new one soon and may be only able to publish and log off for the last works. I apologize if I can't get to comments right now but I will as soon as I can (possibly on my phone or I may just send all of my work to my phone from Grammarly to fix the other problem). Sorry for this, but I'll try to get things up as soon as possible!
> 
> Edit (Only an hour later lmao): So somehow I got the thing up and running. I'll have time to look at people's comments again (!!! I'm so excited) but my computer still sucks. If I end up dropping off the map by accident you'll know where to find me :P

笹の葉 さらさら

軒端に 揺れる

お星様 きらきら

金銀 砂子

五色の 短冊

私が 書いた

お星様 きらきら

空から 見てる 

The bamboo leaves rustle,

And sway under the eaves.

The stars twinkle

Like gold and silver grains of sand.

The five-colour paper strips

I have written them.

The stars twinkle,

Watching from above.

"Tooru! Wake up, the Star Festival's today!" His older sister pounces on his bed. 

"Hmm.." Tooru wraps the blanket around himself tighter, refusing to open his eyes. 

"Tooru, I know that school's been tough, but this is a festival! You can't just not go! It'll be exciting! We'll finally get to go on our own this year!" 

"Just let me sleep." He pulls even farther away from his sister. She huffs.

"Fine then, I guess I'll just use your tanzaku and wish for stacks of milk bread all for myself!"

Tooru throws the covers off of him before shrieking as his sister pulls him out. "You can't do that!" He wines. 

She sticks out her tongue. "Don't think I won't!"

"Nee-san!"

She almost didn't get away with it, he pouts. After profusely expressing how infuriated he was that she'd even  _ think  _ of getting all of that milk bread for herself, despite the fact that she doesn't even really like it to their parents, they head to the crowded streets of Miyagi which is full of people are full out celebrating the Tanabata festival. 

His sister holds his hand as they weave through the crowd to the wish tree, where many other people have already started hanging up their tanzaku. 

"I don't really have a wish Nee-san. What are you writing on yours?"

She laughs. "Tooru, you know that I can't tell you! My wish won't come true!" Her hand hesitates over the paper before she decides to write anything down. 

"How about this. You tell me whatever it is you think I'm going to write, okay? And even if what I write on my wish is different, it'll be like putting the power of two wishes into one." 

"Like through magic?" He asks, eyes widening.

Her contemplative mouth shoots to a knowing grin. "Nope! It's through the aliens."

"The aliens!" Tooru's face lights up as much as the sun does high in the newborn sky. 

"Now you  _ have _ to make a wish Tooru. Or else you won't appease the aliens."

He nods his head as his sister puts the finishing touches on her wish. "Now, what alien magic do you want to use on my wish?" She asks. 

"I wish for an alien to appear!" 

She dramatically squints her eyes. "Are you suuuuure?"

"Yep!"

"Well, that settles it! Aliens, work your magic!" She holds the paper in the air, and the breeze flows through it. She attaches it to the wish tree and the green paper gets lost in the myriad of others. 

"I'm going to wish for aliens again!" Tooru announces. 

"Tooru, you can't do that! That's wishing for a wish twice! It won't come true!" She chuckles. "How about that infinite stack of milk bread, or better grades, or even... a new friend?"

"Noooo Nee-san! I'll find friends! I just haven't...been around enough people yet!" 

His sister smiles that smile adults give young children who are oblivious to the circumstance. It's small but hopeful. "Okay then, but you better write it quick! The parade's going to start!" 

Tooru looks at the small piece of paper, thoughts running through his mind on what he should write. Does he take his sister's advice? Does he ask for milk bread or aliens even though his sister told him not to overwrite the wish? Does he-

"Tooru, you're thinking too hard on this. What do you  _ really  _ want? We can always write something new next year."

"Nee-san?"

"Uhhuh?"

"How do I say that I want to be really close with someone? Like Otosan and Okaasan used to be?"

"Tooru, they still love each other! You can't say that because Otosan isn't always around!"

"I just want a friend! They were really close, and I want someone like them!"

His sister softens. "Like a best friend?"

Tooru nods his head. 

Her ruffled demeanour seems to completely dissipate. "Well, you can write 'I wish for a best friend' and if you really want to appease the aliens you can write after 'as much as Otosan and Okaasan are'."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

His sister puts up his wish up on the wishing tree after he pens it carefully, and it blows wistfully in the breeze like the conversation they just had.

Nearby, a boy the same age who snuck out of the house wishes the same, and he leaves as a cloud of smoke touches down through the area. 

"Hey, Tooru!" His sister brightens up as thought strikes her. 

Tooru turns his head to look at her. 

"Did you ever know what this festival is about?"

"Wishes?" He asks. 

"Nope!" She pops the "P". "While wishes are great, the festival is actually about these old gods. A woman named Orihime wove clothes on the Milky Way river-" Tooru's eyes widen in awe. "-But she got lonely and asked her father if she could fall in love. Her father was so happy with the clothes she made that he let her meet Hikoboshi, someone who tended to cows across the river. They fell in love, isn't that cute, but they didn't continue to watch cows or weave clothes so Orihime's father split them off the river but felt bad for Orihime so he let her see him every 7th day of the 7th month. But they weren't able to cross the bridge to meet and were separated until their death."

Tooru frowns. "Aren't festivals supposed to be about happy things?"

"That's why it's about wishes! So maybe they can meet again!"

"Will that work?" Tooru asks, more in wonder than skepticism. 

"I'm sure it will one day. Wishes aren't something to take lightly."

And just as the final syllable leaves her mouth, two wish trees are set alight, but the flames only lick at one paper on each tree. The words burn to ash and the paper becomes indecipherable, but wishes come true when they are graced by the blazing light of the stars above. 

Someone calls for water, or an extinguisher, and the trees and the other papers are seemingly unharmed. 

Someone else, completely unaware, mutters their pity about an unsaveable wish.

A third someone, optimism brimming as much as the fire would've been if it rampaged further, smiles knowingly. A wish (or as they don't know it, two) becomes true, like an early Christmas present. Or at least that's what they'd like to think.

No one sees it, the rift between the world. It's small but cuts the realm in two. People walk in and out but don't seem to notice how they walk through to a separate, parallel world. Tooru squints at it, contemplates. 

"Tooru, what are you looking at?"

"That! The crack!"

"What crack? Do you mean in the ground? I guess it's kind of big..."

"No! The one in the air! Don't you see it?" 

"Tooru, now I know you're just playing with me."

Tooru pouts. "Nee-san, I'm really getting bored. Are we done here?"

She frowns. "There's really no other place you want to go?"

_ The rift.  _ His heart sings. 

"Nope." 

"Well, when Okaasan complains about you locking yourself up with just a volleyball in your room it won't be my fault!" 

Tooru knows it's horrible that he's sneaking out but if no one believes him he feels as though he has no other choice. He knows he won't be bothered in his room, so runs to his front door and runs to the festival as fast as he can. 

He promises that if it's nothing, he'll come right back.

The rift is right where he left it, cracking and breaking the fabrics of reality. The crowds are big and when he takes a running leap into it, and he sees a flash of a place, not at all like the one he left or the one he expected to find. On the way into the rift, he bumps into someone who runs in the same direction, not unconsciously through it to some parallel other side, but looking like he, too, was purposely rushing to the rift in front of him, curiosity leading him like a carrot on a stick. In the split-second Tooru has before he jumps to the unknown, he feels the same feeling as that someone he's barely seen. 

He's outside in a traditional yukata, completely blue with a thick black band around his waist. He almost trips on the geta under his feet, an unfamiliar height added to his figure. His body doesn't quite feel real like his blood was replaced with the feeling of falling glitter and his heartbeat replaced by the waves of light.

A river runs nearby, trickling thickly. But it has no foundation but a few whisps of cloud-like matter. The sky is a sheet of black with nebulous galaxies painting its foundation. 

He can't see where the river ends, darker than he's used to but not polluted. The river perfectly reflects the sky, and the galaxies ripple dizzyingly. Around him, little huts with tiny bright orange lights that hang off the oversized roofs that seem to be designed for places where people live and decorate the rest of the cloud-like blanket on his side of the river. Nature runs through the nebula and through the huts, much like what he sees every day. 

People ( _ but no, they can't be people, Tooru decides. Their faces are too clear, their smiles too bright. They walk on clouds and wear traditional clothing. It's too quiet, people speaking in respectfully hushed whispers. The river sits within his view, and yet he can't see what's on the other side. No one seems to cross the bridge built there to see. So no, Tooru thinks, they can't be human, but aliens.)  _ bustle around their work, eternally busy. 

He feels neither cold nor hot, a perfect balance of harmony dancing across his skin.

"Tooru! I thought you were old enough to be learning about weaving! It's your job now. I hope you aren't thinking of reconsidering." A man too tall to be a man approaches him, attracting the stares of people who quickly glance away. A few have rounded eyes, struck by the presence of the man in front of them. 

"Huh?" Falls out of his mouth. 

"Do you need me to show you again? As my son, I know you have the capability within you." The man seems to be expanded to his full height, much higher than Tooru is used to. The cloth he wears is plain white and as shiny and pure as snow. He has a cloak that almost encompasses him, a pure blue with a smudge of lavender purple blending through it and white dots that coat the entire thing. He wears similar geta, too. 

"Son?" The man's golden yellow eyes bore through him with worry. The thin silver mustache on his face droops with his mouth and the long beard in the same colour under it. Tooru, however, almost falls back at the simple word the man uttered. The man in front of him is  _ definitely not  _ his father but the comforting aura around him and the way he eases Tooru makes him wonder whether he could be. Like he could trust a complete stranger.

"Six years old and you still must be reminded of the star children..." The man mutters. "Do you see that?" The man doesn't point, he reaches out to a clump of galaxies and stars that hang overhead as if they were all his own. "You were once that, floating through the nimbus of time. You have a heart now, Tooru. I've given you the gift of everlasting life. The spectrum of the stars cascades throughout your body, Tooru."

"How are you my father?" Tooru blurts.

"I've created you, heaven and soul. You are my child, the culmination of the stars. And all of those that still sit in the sky I look after, just as I look after you here as the guardian of the sky."

" _ The aliens... _ " Tooru whispers.

"Hm?"

"Nothing!"

"Did you run to me to ask about the weaving process? I know it can be hard, but you must learn. I have a very good feeling you will be excellent at it."

Tooru can only nod his head as the tall man escorts him back to his nearby hut that overlooks the river that mirrors the sky itself, and the realm across it that he has been given no access to. 

He is shown the intricate motions of the weave, how his hands play with the thread as softly as one would play the harp. The threads get sown together like magic, forming and twisting so they form something of use. 

His "father" or the Tentei as he hears people call the man, leaves him after he feels Tooru has kept up enough to be sufficient. Tooru's hands end up moving on their own, lacing through the cloth in a way he knows he shouldn't normally be able to do. 

He never gets hungry. He never has to go to the bathroom. His fingers just keep moving to the beat of the string. And even when he knows his fingers have been rubbed raw and should be aching to spill drops of blood, tainting the material, only sparks seem to come out of his fingers. No singe or catalyst for a flame, just the light explosion of what feels like the stars crashing into each other. 

He never feels the fatigue, or how he feels the universe's gravity dawn down on his mind, but he feels himself close up like the bloom of a flower. The tiny lights that hang off and decorate the huts begin to turn off and the soft whispers begin to fade. When he looks out the front of the hut he sees a small boy who is dressed like him and seems the same age run across the river's bridge and stop at the end, waiting for someone. A cow waits by his side as he's given some items from another villager before he disappears to the realm across the bridge. 

The last thing he feels is longing. For home, his sister and his family, or whoever he just saw, running freely across the bridge and someone he could almost feel as a familiar face, but he can't confirm for either. 

He bolts up from his bed, a single bead of sweat trickling down his face. He rushes to his sister's room. 

"Nee-san?"

"Tooru you can't get revenge one day after I do the same thing!" She groans from the bed she's hiding in. Like sister like brother he guesses. "I had a good reason anyway!"

"I just need to ask you a question!"

"Fine. Shoot."

"Was I in my room the entire day?"

"Uh, yeah? When Okaasan called you for dinner and you didn't respond, she found you sleeping. She thought she'd better leave you."

"Oh." Is all he says.

"Why? Were you somewhere else?" She smirks.

"No!" He shrieks and runs out of her room. 

It must've been a dream, he decides. 

The crack isn't there when all of the celebratory items have been taken down and isn't there when the season change. Through the orange, red, and yellow hues of the leaves that coat the city like a child's glitter project, then the snow that freezes to the whim of the atmosphere and melts again at a touch of the flow of pink cherry blossoms that cover the streets, reminiscent of the earlier snow but instead like a softer caress when thinking about when it comes, and finally around back to when the flowers dry out and pave way to the scorching tilt of the sun. 

When his sister drags him out to the festival after the clock ticks three hundred sixty-five days by, she promises he can make a new wish, and this time he's much more lenient to go do so. His sister is optimistic, she says her wish hasn't come true but she's sure it will eventually. Tooru's less optimistic, in the complete opposite way. 

The rift, he hopes it's still there. He's sure he saw aliens and even though no one believes him when he says so, he's sure it's true. The kids at school still won't talk to him, and for all of his charm, they won't sit next to him for his mythical rants about the aliens. But he doesn't need to convince anyone of what he's seen.

And sure enough, just a little ways away from the wishing tree, sits the crack in the air, the spare of reality's broken figment. 

And so even though his sister is looking distractedly away, he jumps into the crack in time, to a place that the universe finds itself blind to.

"Tooru, are you okay?" Tentei asks him. 

"Just thinking about...life." He responds as his fingers weave through the threads. He's not perfect it, little mistakes showing through the holes in the weave, but he knows that if this is what he's got this one day a year, and he's not going to waste not perfecting it when he's getting good at it. 

"What is there to ponder?" 

"I'm just-kinda lonely."

"I don't understand. There are plenty of people to talk to. I can talk to you." 

"Yeah but..." He trails off, gaze floating toward the river. 

"Ah." Tentei closes his mouth slowly. 

"What do they do over there?"

"Over the bridge? They live the same...just more dynamic. They don't sit in their houses all day. Most of the things they do are outside."

"Why can't we see them?" 

"Full of questions today, are we?"

Tooru looks down, an embarrassed flush covering his cheeks. 

Tentei laughs, not at him. "Don't be afraid to ask questions son. There isn't much of a life to live if it is unknowledgeable."

"There's someone over there that I swear I've seen before. I want to say hi!"

"Are you...sure? I don't believe anyone on this side has formally met anyone on the other side. They pass by for trade and gathering but they don't stick around for long."

"Well... we haven't actually met. I just have a feeling."

"I understand. Yes, the fog of uncertainty is two way, a design by the fabrics of reality. You are not forbidden but I don't know how well it will go. I implore you to continue your weaving, however."

"I will!" Tooru says, stars in his eyes. 

Just as he turns to leave the boy passes on the bridge once again, a few cows this time following him. He looks up to Tooru, eyes slightly widened at what Tooru can only hope familiarity with. 

"Is that him?" Tentei asks, eyes analyzing and curious. 

Tooru nods his head. The boy quickly looks away when he notices the too-tall man standing beside Tooru. He waits, eyes levelled to the ground and Tooru watches him stare down the centre gravel street that splits the huts in a neat line that leads right up to the bridge before receiving his items and leaving. 

The boy though, briefly looks over his shoulder, shyly, like he doesn't want to be pulverized by the tall man. The two share that space of eye contact for a beat, two. The boy's face eventually softens into a small smile and he gives a small wave before running off. 

Tooru gives a small wave in return that he doesn't see. Tentei smiles above him but ushers Tooru back to his work. 

The small patterned black-and-white cloth he weaves later reminds him of a cow.

Every year during the Tanabata festival, he ends up jumping through the rift in the sky that no one can see. Over the years, he asks his mother to help him weave, but it just doesn't come as easily when he's not in his own home. His mother advises him to try something to put his delicate hands to, so he attempts volleyball, real volleyball. Over time, volleyball becomes the only thing that occupies his mind until the Tanabata festival comes around again, and a constant he hasn't had the chance to "formally meet" as Tentei says it. 

When he's eight years old, he seeks out the familiar boy, clad in his own yukata, always by cows or carrying a cart to help the other side that Tooru was never able to see. He isn't successful. Only gestures are shared.

Eichi-san, a paranoid clay maker, thinks that the other side is cursed, that they've been lied to about what the other side lives to. 

Takara-san, someone who never shows the thousands of words she writes to a page, doesn't like bothering with the other side, as her meddling with dreams has got her caught and caged. 

Minako-san, the kind old lady who tends to flowers, believes there's something special on the other side but that "specialty" is different for everyone, just as she believes the same for the people on the other side.

Tooru likes talking to the village people, but he realizes they've never experienced the life he's lived outside. They seem to be trapped, small fingers of stardust and power at the mercy of the job they will spend eternity on. 

They never say they feel lonely either, just complacent. 

He'd like to say the same, but when the boy that walks across the rivers bridge is there every time he arrives, he can't squash the feeling. 

At nine, volleyball becomes all he can focus on. He's determined, the want to be good at something being fulfilled through the sport instead of his half-hearted abilities of weaving when it's not inter-dimensional. He's made friends through volleyball but he can tell that they wouldn't always be there for him. He knows they don't hate him but if they had to choose someone, it wouldn't be him. And most times it is. 

His mother asks concerns about if that's okay with him, that the other kids aren't willing to open up to him. His father isn't home enough to ask. He brushes her off, however. It doesn't bother him when someone is waiting for him in a few months, or rather someone he's waiting to see. 

He makes a half-hearted wish on the wishing tree, more wishing to be away from his sister fast enough for him to jump through the universe. No one ever questions how he ends up napping in his room, despite his sister never seeing him leaving and his mother never seeing him enter his house. 

"He gets bored so easily and just crashes only on this date." His sister always laughs to family when telling the story. They'll never know. He knows, even at such a young age, that no one will listen and there's no one on the other side he'll tell about his normal life either. 

But at nine, he finally approaches the village boy. He stops the boy in his tracks as he's leaving, a cow mooing behind him. 

"I want to get to know you so we can be friends!" The boy doesn't know about him based on his normal life. He doesn't know how the kids shun him and how alone he is, how they don't even bother to pay attention to him even when he tries to be friendly. All the boy in front of him knows is that he's being assertive, and he thinks maybe that's all he needed in the beginning. But it's a new start, to say the least. 

"I have to leave soon. Sorry I didn't greet you earlier." The boy mumbles. 

Tooru smiles. "That's okay! I just want your name!"

"Iwaizumi Hajime." Is the clearest thing that's ever come out of the other boy's mouth, but it's perfect to Tooru. His sincere grin increases tenfold. 

"Nice to meet you, Iwa-chan!" He uses the nickname with such ease like he's known this person ever since he was born. Iwaizumi's eyes even flash in shock for a split second before a hard stare replaces his expression. But he thinks he's entitled to it after the only "nickname" he ever gets to call anyone is "Nee-san", which isn't a nickname and is only classified as such because it isn't her real name. But he digresses. There's someone he's been waiting to greet for a very long time in front of him! "I'm Oikawa Tooru, and I can't wait to be friends!"

He doesn't get to see his first-ever friend for another four seasons. He's got one year left after the one he's in until junior high, where he'll finally be able to play on a real volleyball team. He wonders if Iwaizumi would like volleyball. It must be boring carrying things back and forth, he decides. If he can, he'll bring a volleyball next time. 

He sees Tentei eye him wearily when he approaches Iwaizumi in the middle of the bridge connecting the lands across the river at ten years old in the early "dawns". He tried to bring a volleyball to no such luck, so he's decided to explain it to Iwaizumi.

"So it's like, there's a ball! And you serve it over this big net and you can't let it touch the ground. And you only get three hits or else you don't get the point."

"Oikawa, I know what volleyball is."

"You know what volleyball is?!" Tooru almost screams in his face.

"Yes.." Iwaizumi meekly replies. 

"I tried to bring one but it vanished..." The sentence runs dry on his mouth. What he's just implied must be impossible to this world, despite the fact he tried to keep it hidden. 

"What do you mean, vanished?" Iwaizumi asks, small eyebrow quirked.

"Well, I don't know!" Tooru lies. "I just couldn't find it!" As much as he'd love to tell Iwaizumi, he can't risk it if he knew. Iwaizumi has to be of this world, and when he finds out that he hasn't been seeing him every day like everyone else somehow believes, he might not want to be around him anymore. "They have volleyball up here though?"

"Uh." Is all Iwaizumi says. He looks increasingly uncomfortable as Tooru's stare continues to lay on him.

"None of your business!" Iwaizumi yells and runs across the bridge. 

"Iwa-chan!" Tooru screeches. "You can't hide that forever! I'll remember that!"

He's dragged back by an exasperated Tentei, and his thoughts stray to Iwaizumi as he starts to doubt if he was right about where his morality lies when he's not in his presence for the rest of the day.

At eleven he finds his last year of elementary school to be incredibly boring. He tries to found an extraterrestrial club to compensate for not being able to play school volleyball, but no one joins. He starts to apply to junior high school, most of which have high aptitudes for volleyball. Shiritorizawa Academy Junior High rejects him, but he gets into the second-best school, Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High, which has him ecstatic. He attends his first volleyball game, Japan versus Argentina when he first starts to see it as more than just a hobby. Argentina, stuck in a tough spot, switches setters to one who easily rears the game back on track. The synergy is beautiful, each perfect put set smashed to a spike. The air seems to suspend and tighten just before the spiker smashes the ball and point after point is scored. 

But does the career shine in his favour? He wonders. His thoughts briefly consider Iwaizumi and the 'other realm' as he's dubbed it. As childish as it seems, he does still want to be there in favour of the life he currently lives.

The world around him is a lot brighter when he's got something to look forward to. The colours seem to jump out at him more from the streamers of the festival as if they're trying to coax him into picking a side. The rift shines the biggest of them all in the middle of the passerby's. When put into perspective his entire life is situated here, at the Tanabata festival. The hanging air between life on Earth and the life in the other realm. For all of the beauty and colour of Earth, something, something he can't put a finger on seems out of place. For the two realms being able to coexist, he wonders if Earth can constantly handle it. He wonders if the rift is only the beginning.

"How is your scarf coming along, Tooru?" Tentei asks him when he arrives. 

"Alright, I guess." He answers half-heartedly. 

"What bothers you today?" He asks, although not unkindly. 

"Lots of things. It just seems like it was so easy for people to pick what they want to do. But- I'm not sure what I want."

"You want to quit weaving?" Tentei's eyes knit in pondering worry. "But you're so good at it." 

"Not quit, I was just wondering what it would be like to try something new. Just not permanently."

He sighs. "Tooru, I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Everyone is perfectly happy in their position. No one's ever asked to change."

"Yeah...I guess. I am happy! I don't know why I even said that."

Tentei chuckles, mouth curving too small to feel genuine. "That's okay, Tooru. You're young. You just aren't used to it yet."

He walks away, the conversation peetering to a place where he feels it isn't quite finished. 

He knits the scarf in record time, little waves of blue and white coursing through the fabric. Iwaizumi is walking with a simple cart this time, but it's empty. Iwaizumi waves him over. When Tooru notices, he jumps up to the bridge.

"Iwa-chan! Finally decided to visit me?"

"No." Iwaizumi says, as blunt as that. "I'm picking up your clothes."

"You won't even stay to talk to me?"

"Not if you're going to keep asking about volleyball!"

"That was one time! And you didn't answer!"

"Because I didn't want to!" 

Tooru glares at Iwaizumi, and if taken by an adult probably would've seemed funny, but Iwaizumi didn't like that look on him and frowned in return.

Tooru gathers up all of the different clothing he's made into his arms and runs back to Iwaizumi. The material jumps out in many different colours and patterns. 

"I'm not giving you these until you talk to me!"

"You're so bratty, now give me the clothes!"

"No!"

"Oikawa, I have other stuff to do!"

"What, stuff on the other side?"

"Yes, stuff on the other side!" Iwaizumi sighs, exasperated.

"What kind of stuff?" Tooru's voice softens, figuring if he can't get out of it, he'd rather extract something for his gain from his friend.

"Watching the cows, getting water from the river, figuring stuff out about home-"

"Home?" Tooru asks.

"Yeah, you idiot! Earth- _ shit _ ."

Tooru gasps but not before his smile stretches across his face. He throws all of the clothes in triumph. "I knew it, Iwa-chan! You can't pretend around me- _ hey _ !" 

He dances across the cloud floor until he notices Iwaizumi sneaking off with all of the clothes he dropped, but Tooru lets him leave. 

"If all I had to do to get you to come to me was make clothes, you should've just told me, Iwa-chan~" He sings, uncaring if the other hears him or not. 

He joins his first-ever volleyball team. Kitagawa Daiichi is strong, able to push back the best of blockers and deliver the best of spikes for their age. Tooru isn't on the first string, but he still proudly takes in the sounds and the sights of an actual volleyball court filled to the brim with players. And once he gets to play, touching the ball the longest as a setter is all he can think about.

Getting away from his family to jump to a place no one can see becomes easier as more responsibilities and trusts are placed on his shoulders with age. He envies the people that walk around the festival with all of their friends though, laughing and having a fun he'd never been given the grace for. He wonders what they'd feel like if they could only see one friend once a year. 

At twelve years old, Iwaizumi beckons him to visit him again at the very end of his time on the other side, but even though he vividly remembers their last conversation and how his suspicions had been correct, he still can't get volleyball stuck out of his head. His fingers move on automatic, the clear seams almost sowing themselves up. 

" _ Hey _ !" Iwaizumi snaps at the bridge. "Did your brain leave? Have you been doing this so often that you just never want to do anything again?"

"Huh?" He asks, unaware of Iwaizumi's attempts to call him over the entire time. He jumps up to meet him. 

"Look, I wanted to talk to you about...Earth because there's no point in hiding it anymore."

Tooru's interest piques. "Yeah?"

"I don't live here all year." Iwaizumi's voice is hushed, almost scared that it will amplify and everyone will hear. "That's why I know about volleyball. I jump through this weird crack thing in the sky every Tanabata festival that no one ever sees, but I see people walk through it. And I ended up here when I was six on the other side of the river."

"Yeah, me too!" Tooru blurts. 

"What?" Iwaizumi asks. 

"Yeah! It's the same thing!"

"Don't be so loud!" 

"But-this is exciting! I know you! I can see you now, lots more than just once a year! And we can talk and play volleyball, and have sleepovers and help each other with school!"

"Well, what school do you go to first? We can't help each other if we don't go to the same school, dumbass."

"Kitagawa Daiichi!"

Iwaizumi's eyes widen. "Me too." 

Tooru's almost shouting at this point. "Then you must be on the volleyball team, right?"

"Yeah."

"And I never saw you? But who cares! We can see each other every day now!"

Iwaizumi almost can't believe what he's hearing. It can't be true, no way. 

"We go to the same Kitagawa Daiichi? In Miyagi?"

"Iwa-chan, how many Kitagawa Daiichi's do you know of? Stop being so skeptical! It has to be true! Yes, it's Kitagawa Daiichi, the school that is second-best in the prefecture!"

He rolls his eyes and yawns. "Yeah, fine. But are you sure Kitagawa is that good? I've heard they've always lost out early."

"What? Your magazines are outdated, Iwa-chan! They're super good!"

"Maybe..." Iwaizumi mumbles. "I've got to get going back, but I guess I'll...see you tomorrow at practice?"

"For sure, Iwa-chan!" Tooru's so caught up with the fact that he and Iwaizumi are going to the same school he forgets to register that they don't even have practice tomorrow. 

The next day, he can't find Iwaizumi anywhere. Throughout the year, that stays true. Every teacher says they've never taught an "Iwaizumi Hajime", the volleyball team has never heard of him either, and he's never been in school pictures. 

Betrayal hurts just as much as the practice jump serves he keeps hitting over the net. 

When he becomes part of the first-string in his second year, he knows someone is supposed to be beside him, but isn't. He thinks Iwaizumi would've made a good spiker and their synergy would've been unbeatable, even to Shiritorizawa and Ushijima Wakatoshi who has given Tooru looks of piqued interest despite the fact they've never played against each other in his first big tournament last year.

His wish at the Tanabata festival ends up being to see Iwaizumi this year and hopes that he wasn't lying to him instead of the wish being volleyball related. 

He's not sure if it's just him being nervous (which he never is) but the crack seems to look less tempting than every year before it. 

He'd like to march over the bridge so he can give Iwaizumi a piece of his mind after not seeing him for a year, but it's not that simple on his end. Iwaizumi does end up walking over the bridge, but it's just him and a glare that would've scared him more than his own mother if he wasn't just as furious. 

"Where were you?" Iwaizumi shouts first.

"Where was  _ I _ ? I was waiting for you! You said you were going to Kitagawa Daiichi! In Miyagi! It's the same school! And I asked around, and there  _ was _ no one named Iwaizumi Hajime! Not at the school, or the volleyball team!"

" _ What? _ " Iwaizumi's anger melts more into confusion. "I did the same thing! You weren't there!"

"How did your volleyball team place in the tournament in your first year?" Tooru asks. 

"Second last! Like every year!"

Tooru's mouth shapes into an oval. "B-but we made it all the way to the semi-finals! Shiritorizawa won the tournament!"

" _ Shiritorizawa won the tournament? _ " Iwaizumi says with the utmost of disbelief. "Now I know we're definitely part of two different worlds. Shiritorizawa placed  _ last _ in ours!" 

"Wait, what did you say?"

"That Shiritorizawa placed last in our tournament?"

"No, before that!"

"Uh, we're part of two different world-"

Both of them reel back in shock. 

"You don't live in my world, do you Iwa-chan?" Tooru asks, hushed. 

"I can't-there's no way-"

"What high school are you going to?" Tooru tests.

"Aoba Johsai Public High School." Iwaizumi responds. 

"Aoba Johsai  _ Private  _ High School." Tooru gasps. "There's no way! That's too much of a coincidence!"

"What colour is your uniform?" Iwaizumi tests back.

"Mainly blue with some beige."

Iwaizumi's face drains its colour. "Ours is the opposite."

"Mainly beige?" Tooru asks.

"Yeah." His response is barely a breath. 

"How? How does this even happen? We live in  _ opposite realities _ ?" Tooru's supernatural obsessed brain is reeling, catching up too much information and not processing it fast enough to believe that he has  _ more _ proof of it. 

"What do we do now?" Iwaizumi asks. 

"What can we do? We live light years away from each other." Tooru responds. 

Out of the corner of his eyes, he spots Tentei observing them. He's not sure how much time he has left. 

"Well, you better get going now, Iwa-chan! It was nice talking to you!" He starts to push Iwaizumi off the bridge. 

"Wha-Shittykawa we barely started talkin-"

" _ Tentei's over there.  _ " He whisper-hushes. " _ He'll hear. I think we're the only two who have lives on Earth! We'll talk about this later! _ It was nice to see you!"

"Yeah, bye Oikawa." Iwaizumi half-grumbles. 

Tooru looks up at him with the most  _ I'm sorry  _ look he can give. Iwaizumi seems to sigh and gives him a soft wave before crossing the bridge back over. 

He never gets the chance to see Iwaizumi for the remainder of the time he spends during Tanabata. He can feel Tentei starting to become wise to them, but what he isn't sure of is what he'll do with them if he finds out. 

In his second year at the Junior High Athletics Meet, they come just short again, placing in the semi-finals and not being able to compete against Ushijima. However, Ushijima does approach him after the game, telling him to "Come to Shiritorizawa for high school". Every time Ushjima so much as looks at Tooru, he wants to be near him less and less. He declines Ushjimia's offer, less than gracefully. But that's okay, because next time they're out on the court, he'll be the one to beat him less than gracefully anyway.

Once he reaches third year, he becomes captain. Ushijima is a tall wall that blocks his path, one he will not stop to defeat. Nothing stops him from staying longer and practicing harder. There's no one to warn him of how far he's going, no one to stop him from his full pursuits. His jump serve is coming along, and this year he's sure he'll get to finals. He's too dedicated, too far gone to pay attention to anything else. The underclassmen are scared of him, and he still doesn't have anyone he could call a proper close friend. But it doesn't matter, not when the goal is within his reach. 

Kageyama Tobio is an Ushiwaka-sized thorn in his side. Except Ushiwaka is on a different team, and also not a setter. Kageyama is naturally talented, remnants of ability flowing through every ball he touches. If Tooru didn't know any better, he'd think that the stars were giving their gifts to Kageyama from the other side. He's so innocent too, eyes wide in admiration for Tooru, but he isn't fooled. He knows what he's gunning for, and if he lets his guard down, his position will be swept under his feet. 

So he works harder, ignoring the pain. He doesn't let Kageyama's curious eyes or held tongue bother him. He stays later in the night, too late to be considered healthy, but nothing he's doing is healthy, so why not push a little further? Why not strive a little higher? 

He's almost passed out on the gym floor multiple times. 

But it doesn't matter. Just as long as he can keep going.

"Oikawa-san? Will you teach me how to serve?" The words break through the walls of focus he's put up. 

_ Why are you still here?  _ He thinks.  _ I need to get better, better than you. You've already done what they've all asked.  _ **_ Why? _ ** _ Why do you continue to want to  _ **_ piss me off _ ** _! _

"Oikawa-san?"

He laughs, and the bitter sound reverberates around the gym. 

"Why are you  _ here _ , Tobio-chan?"

"L-like I said. I want to learn how to serve like you."

" _ Kageyama _ ." He says, hoping the warning in his voice will scare him off. It doesn't. "How about you learn how to leave me the  _ hell  _ alone!" And he brings his hand around, and it connects with something other than the ball. 

He reels back, shocked. His throat feels like it's tightening, the world seems to spin. Kageyama takes a step back, red staining his cheek. He holds a hand up to it, testing the pressure. He doesn't show any signs of being in grave pain, but his eyes flash downwards. 

"Kageyama-I'm sorry-" 

"I-I understand Oikawa-san. Goodnight." The worst part is, he doesn't even look hurt, just determined. 

That's when the thread of his own determination and will to keep going starts to waver and snap. He panics when he realizes he's losing interest, and his plays slip, slip until they fall, and soon enough, he's not being played anymore. He can't look at Kageyama's wide eyes from across the court where he's taking his place perfectly like a better carbon copy. So he practices more. 

He stays too late as his knee starts to flare, starts to make him stop. But he doesn't want to, not when he thinks he can keep making himself want to go farther. 

The festival lights always seem dimmer when he's in a bad mood. People love to roam the streets of the festival like time isn't escaping them, like they have nothing to worry about. When he writes his wish, he doesn't do something as petty as hope he becomes a genius overnight or for Kageyama's skill to be lucky chance. It's tempting, but he decides to wish to beat Ushiwaka. He wonders how Iwaizumi is doing, and if they've gotten better, and if he has to worry about a genius setter and a monster spiker. 

"You look terrible." Iwaizumi says.

"I wished for the opposite though, Iwa-chan! And I always look nice!"

"No, I'm serious you, idiot. What have you been doing?"

"Just practicing a whole lot! How'd your team place last year?"

Iwaizumi huffs at the question but takes note of the conversation switch. "Second last, as always. Barely beat out Shiritorizawa."

Tooru frowns. He still can't believe Shiritorizawa in a different universe is worse than them. 

"What happens in your world? What is it like where you can't get anywhere?"

"None of us are doing it to get really good. I think I'll play in high school, but that's it. We're just not good enough to make it anywhere."

"But...why don't you  _ try  _ a little harder?"

"We do, you idiot! We try our hardest, but we just can't get anywhere!"

"So you've given up?"

"Is this what this is about? What's going on in your world?"

"It's nothing!"

"Well, clearly not! What's wrong?"

"I haven't beat Shritorizawa yet! But I'm going to!"

" _ You're  _ going to?"

"Yeah! Who else would? Tobio-chan? I don't think so."

"Tobio-chan?" 

Tooru pouts. "He's no one. Just a good setter, that's all."

"Oikawa, are you kidding me? What the hell have you been doing to yourself?"

"Nothing! I told you, I'm getting better!"

They both notice Tentei stroll by. "What are you working on?" Iwaizumi hastily asks. 

"A new robe! Do you think everyone will like it?" The robe sits in his arms, barely half-finished and in teal Aoba Johsai colours. 

" _ Seriously? Seijoh colours? _ " Iwaizumi hisses. 

" _ What? It's just two colours!"  _

_ "You're going to get us found out!" _

_ "Iwa-chan, they know nothing about Earth! How are they supposed to know? Is this even about the colours anymore?" _

_ "God, you're just so stupid. You can't go into high school volleyball if you fuck yourself up, you know that?" _

_ "Iwa-chan, see you're worrying too much! I'm fine!" _

_ "I swear if I find out you do some stupid shit-next time you come-" _

_ "I get it, I get it! I won't!  _ Bye, Iwa-chan!" Tooru says loudly. "Come again sometime!" 

Iwaizumi shoots him a glare before running back over the bridge. 

"Tooru, this can't continue." Tentei appears in front of him. Tooru almost jumps back. "I can't have you be distracted from work! This is important, you're melding a lifeline. The stars work to favour those who let it run in a more stable condition." He gestures to their bodies. "Why does he distract you so much?" It would be easy, wouldn't it, to say Tentei didn't know any better, that Tooru has been lonely this whole time and kept it to himself with no one to bother because no one would comprehend. But the look in Tentei's eyes spells differently like this is familiar like it's something he'll sorrily regret if he has to deal with it again. 

"I just like talking to him. We have lots in common."

"Please, don't become too attached. Not when there is more to life than the invisible ties you think you make." He sounds exhausted. "Now, what are you working on?" 

Iwaizumi chides him once again, but with his warning, he's sure he'll get through to Tooru. They talk more, but they know the words are empty. As much as they try to fill the silence of not hearing each other for years, the words stop at the end of their sound waves, falling on deaf ears. 

The next two years seem to fly by in tandem, just as the oned before them. He doesn't beat Shiritorizawa in junior high whatsoever. He goes to Aoba Johsai, where it seems something is constantly missing, perhaps he just misses Iwaizumi's company. He makes a friend, the first one he can actually consider as such who isn't in a different dimension. Matsukawa seems to tolerate him, and Tooru thinks he's funny in return. Within the next two years, they don't beat Shiritorizawa either. 

Within the next two years, he stops wishing on stars and lets the festival blur past him.

Iwaizumi tells him he also has a new friend by the name of Hanamaki, and Tooru can't push back the feeling of jealousy that sparks when he sees how happy he is. He's happy being with Matsukawa, but not as happy as if he were to be with Iwaizumi. 

His fingers are also now able to fly across the weaves without effort, mind often straying too far gone to be able to concentrate anyway. 

Matsukawa and he play on the volleyball team, and this time, he's not going to let Kageyama, Ushijima or anyone get in his way. 

Practice is gruelling, and the after practice ever so much more. Matsukawa has warned him, but Tooru can't help but think of someone else who would do a better job, no offence to Matsukawa. He's so easily swayed by an "I'm fine" as long as he promises to come home early.

The "fines" dissolve like salt in water, where it's replaced with an ocean of injury. Tooru doesn't quit. If no one's going to tell him to stop, he'll run an extra mile after the marathon. He has to keep going, has to keep telling himself that he wants to keep doing it or he doesn't know who he'll be anymore.

He finds the festival hard to walk through, both physically and mentally, because his legs seem to be giving out, and he knows Iwaizumi will scold him even though his body repairs itself in the short day of the Tanabata festival in the other realm. 

" _ What the hell are you doing? _ " He'd yell. For being a part of a school that has less aptitude than in Tooru's universe, Iwaizumi can read people well. Iwaizumi would probably counteract that and say that has nothing to do with it. Maybe Tooru would reluctantly claim in return he just can read Tooru more instead. 

In the next two years, Iwaizumi seems sequentially more hurt every time he knows Tooru is lying to him, every time he's not there to stop him from teetering over the edge. 

One part of Tooru wants to scream back, how would he ever know? How could he know what it's like to need to keep going when the stairs just keep growing higher? He doesn't care enough! 

The other part of him feels like he did the day he slapped Kageyama. Sick to his core, the betrayal of a friend sitting in the very pits of his soul. Iwaizumi doesn't deserve someone who won't listen, someone who keeps ignoring his warnings. 

He fears it. Every time he walks through the rift, a rift he's noticed that crackles more and snarls like a wild animal trying to be let free, he fears more Iwaizumi leaving him for good than the imbalance of the teeters and the people he's not sure of around him.

In his third year at eighteen, he hasn't beaten Ushijima. But soon. This year, he can feel it. He loves his team, he feels as though he's finally connected with them to the level where every play feels perfected, the synergy perfectly flows through the circuits. But for all that there is, there seems to be something missing. Whether it be longing or a physical attribute, Tooru's not sure he wants to think about it more than he has to. 

They lost against Karasuno in a practice game not too long ago. He wasn't there for most of it, but Kageyama found a new weapon to use. A tiny and quick player who could jump and hit any one of Kageyama's sets. They were perfect for each other, something Tooru realizes he doesn't have for as much that he puts into his team. 

They barely beat them at the Interhigh. The look on Kageyama's face was something Tooru will never forget because he knows that he might not ever get to see the face of crushing defeat on him ever again. But now, he knows this fact is certain.

He tore his ACL in the last play. A rookie mistake, he thinks, as he's being carted away to the hospital and the pain starts to overload his emotionally tired body. The only thing he could think of at that moment wasn't his future or the next tournament, but Iwaizumi's scrunched face facing him disapprovingly and saddened, anger at its hilt. That's when it all comes crashing down, the final nail in the coffin he needed to be told, that for as much as he tried to keep his motivation for volleyball, it wasn't meant to be in this universe. 

When they announce that they're not sure if he'll ever play again, Tooru finds his father didn't show up for that either.

Over the same next two years, he finds it hard to concentrate around Iwaizumi. He's known him for less than twenty days, but he's treasured their every interaction, every second he's been allowed in his presence. It's not a matter of defying time, or death, but space itself, and Tooru curses his love of the supernatural and how much he feels like there could be a solution to get access to an alternate universe. He realizes that Iwaizumi has been his constant, and while in the hospital, if he was going to spend his life somewhere that wasn't volleyball, he knows where he had to go. 

Tooru would like to say that the festival looks dimmer when he arrives like the world itself isn't supposed to look so grim. Tearing his ACL and giving up volleyball to his realization and motivation had broken his heart, but he didn't expect the world to act in kind like the rift wasn't the only thing tearing the world apart. People seemed to be chunking off, floating through the matter of space itself. The rift was absorbing the matter of space and yet again, no one seemed to notice. Earth's scale had finally tipped and tipped so far the scale pan was coming loose. 

_ Make a decision.  _ It whispers. 

Tooru thinks he's known his since day one.

"Oikawa!" He hears a shout at the bridge. "Fuck, finally, are you okay?" Iwaizumi, of course, can't move much farther than that. 

"The crack in the world. You saw it too."

"Yeah. I wasn't sure if you'd make it."

"Of course I did! I'd never leave you here!"

Iwaizumi blinks his eyes once. His ears turn slightly red. "There's something wrong here. The world-it going to be all gone. But why?"

"Have you noticed it too? How the world gets darker every Tanabata? I don't think it started until-"

"-Until we met." Iwaizumi finishes. 

"Iwa-chan, there's something I have to tell you." Tooru realizes. At that moment, he feels the worlds collide, and the time he has left dwindle. The words come pouring out of his mouth, and he feels like he's speaking too fast. 

"Ever since I met you, it's felt like-there's something that's been missing. I've never had many friends, but you were always there, and I didn't realize it until I couldn't play volleyball anymore."

"Oikawa, you what-"

"No, I'm finishing! You have to be someone important. Someone who means something to me because I've never felt this way around someone else. Hajime, I-"

"-You're too clever. I'm sure my daughter would be proud."

"Tentei?" Tooru opens his mouth and closes it. He looks behind him to see the man, the man who at one point he thought would be a replacement for his father. "Why are you here?"

"Just when I thought you wouldn't be united, I was gifted this. The stars are cruel sometimes."

"Tentei, you didn't-"

"Orihime and Hikoboshi, Tooru and Hajime."

"No way..." Iwaizumi whispers.

"Reincarnation..." Says Tooru at the same time.

"Yes. You two were never able to meet again in your previous life. The bridge never mended, and your lives both burnt out as the asters do. But you came back. I don't know how you did it, but you did. I sent you down to these worlds to live. I couldn't let you meet again, not after last time, so I sent you to two different realities. The universe always has other plans though, it seems. The rift brought you here as the worlds I built for you were destroyed by your meeting sets. I tried to keep you apart through the festival."

"That's the 7th day of the 7th month. You tried to do the same thing as Orihime and Hikoboshi?!"

"Yes. And even when you continued to be separated, you let heaven crumble through neglectfulness. But even beyond that, you still fell in love. Fate seems to be ever in your favour."

"How did you know?" Tooru says, not quite processing all of the information that's being quick-fired at them.

"You have her eyes, Tooru. Orihime had the biggest brown eyes. The asters always paled in comparison." He sighs, defeated. "It seems though, I am no longer needed. You two are still a product of the heavens, but I believe in you. Please make Orihime and Hikoboshi proud."

The spell breaks as quickly as it starts. For something that took up his entire life, Tooru feels that to hear it all is anticlimactic. But Iwaizumi sits across from him, easily accessible. It's not that he's been physically out of reach, but to cross the bridge, to switch positions, he thought it was impossible by God. 

"So Iwa-chan-"

"Were you going to finish what you were going to say? Or do I have to finish it for you, dumbass?"

Tooru's face breaks into a mega-watt smile, and he loops his hands behind Iwaizumi's neck. 

"Just one more thing." He says softly, so the words get lost in the river. 

"Tentei?" He asks as Tentei has almost completely disappeared from his vision in his fading light. He slowly turns his head towards him. "This is what forever means, right?"  _ Do you promise? Am I finally allowed to be together with him? _

Tentei only nods, and he disappears from view. Iwaizumi loops his hands around Tooru's waist protectively.

"Are you okay?" Iwaizumi asks. 

Tooru looks into his vibrant green eyes and lets the world melt away. "Yeah." 

When Iwaizumi kisses him, he sees the stars of the galaxy that paints the heavens above, and he feels the weight and purity of the water below him. The stars that replace his blood vibrate through his skin like sparks. Iwaizumi moves one of his hands from his hips to his cheek and holds Tooru like he was the world that crumbled back on Earth. 

When they split apart, Iwaizumi's wide grin parallels his. He holds out a hand for Tooru to take. 

"Do you want to see the other side?" 

"I'd love to Iwa-chan."

"I saw you, that first day I jumped in." Iwaizumi says.

Tooru laughs. "So did I. Did you ever wish for anything during that year at the festival?"

"Yeah, I did."

_ I wish for a best friend, someone who will always be beside me. _

_ I wish for a best friend, someone who will always love me.  _

_ I wish for a best friend, someone who has seen the stars and back and still wants to be around me.  _

_I wish for a best friend. _

**Author's Note:**

> So I noticed while looking at this work it seemed a little shaky in terms of writing? I'm not really sure. Please tell me what you think of it, I'm not sure if it was too convoluted or not!
> 
> And also, I just thought I'd mention that the original fable for the Tanabata festival was actually with the two being able to meet again, but the bridge broke but was repaired by magpies that came from Orihime's crying. If it rains on a Tanabata, they can't meet. Obviously I altered it a bit.
> 
> Cool plug: Make sure to follow me on twitter @phoenixesse or tumblr @rosiey9 for updates and rebloggings/retweets of people's cool things because I can't do art :)


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